Triangle-Free Triangulations, Hyperplane Arrangements and Shifted Tableaux

Abstract

Flips of diagonals in colored triangle-free triangulations of a convex polygon are interpreted as moves between two adjacent chambers in a certain graphic hyperplane arrangement. Properties of geodesics in the associated flip graph are deduced. In particular, it is shown that: (1) every diagonal is flipped exactly once in a geodesic between a pair of distinguished antipodes; (2) the number of geodesics between these antipodes is equal to twice the number of standard Young tableaux of a truncated shifted staircase shape.